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Posts tagged as “current-events”

Medgar Evers' Widow to Deliver Inauguration Prayer

By goodblacknews on January 9, 2013

Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers (Michael Caulfield/Wire Image/Getty Images)
Medgar Evers’ widow to deliver inauguration prayer: President Obama has chosen Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation at his public swearing-in later this month, the Washington Post reports. This will be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than a clergy member, has been chosen to perform the invocation.
item by Jenée Desmond-Harris via theroot.com

University of Arizona Introduces First Ever Hip-Hop Minor

By goodblacknews on January 7, 2013
grandmaster-flash-16x9

The University of Arizona has announced that it has created a “Hip-Hop Concentration” minor under the Africana Studies department, the first of its kind for any institution, according to the school’s website.
The course’s objectives are to “provide students with a solid introduction and broad understanding of the origins and developing of the forms of expression that make up hip-hop culture throughout the world: hip-hop dance, rap music, graffiti/tagging, fashion, business, and film.

“Wilmington Ten” Pardoned by North Carolina Governor

By goodblacknews on December 31, 2012
Wilmington Ten

Members of the “Wilmington 10” hold a brief communion service before boarding a prison bus on Feb. 2, 1976 in Burgaw, North Carolina, as they surrendered to start prison terms on convictions growing out of 1971 racial disorders in Wilmington, N.C. Four of the group shown from left are Connie Tindall, Rev. Ben Chavis, Jerry Jacobs and Anne Sheppard. (AP Photo)

After decades of claims that they were wrongly convicted, nine African-American men and one white women who were imprisoned for an arson fire in North Carolina that stemmed from racial unrest over integrated schools have been pardoned.  North Carolina Gov. Bev Purdue, who is leaving office in just one week, issued the pardons Monday.

Purdue’s office issued a statement, saying she had spent “a great deal of time over the past seven months reviewing the pardon of innocence requests of the persons collectively known as the Wilmington Ten.”

Panera Franchisee Pays to Settle Racism Lawsuit with Black Workers

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2012

Sam Covelli, the owner of several western Pennsylvania Panera Bread restaurants is paying for allegedly discriminating against African-American workers. The franchisee will pay Guy Vines, a former employee who is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit $10,000 and $66,000 in attorneys’ fees as part of the settlement. He’ll also pay out an extra 70 cents per hour to each member of the lawsuit for each year after their first year of employment with Covelli, according to a Courthouse News Service report.

Vines and other members of the class action lawsuit claimed they were forced to work in the kitchen because Covelli didn’t want black employees in public view, according to court documents. Vines’ attorney told the judge that about 200 to 300 black workers could be entitled to money.

In a January 2012 complaint, Vines claimed that he worked as a sandwich maker at Panera Bread from 2009 to 2011, but his manager said black workers like him were ineligible for promotion to management. The same manager also allegedly said “customers would not want to see an African-American working in the front of the store,” and feared he would lose his job for disobeying this rule.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster in Pittsburgh made the following statement regarding the settlement.

“Here, the class members allege that they were flatly ineligible for promotion because of their race and regardless of their job performance, They allege that this prohibition, although not written down anywhere, was the rule at all of defendant’s restaurants, and that defendant’s managers disobeyed it at their peril. This question of law and fact applies evenly across the class and is sufficient to ensure that ‘the action can be practically maintained and that the interests of the absentees will be fairly and adequately represented.’”

He gave final approval last week after a fairness hearing.

Covelli Enterprises and Panera Bread did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

article by C. Daniel Baker via blackenterprise.com

Berkeley’s First Woman Firefighter Debra Pryor Retires as First Woman Chief

By goodblacknews on December 28, 2012

Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is retiring Dec. 28, 2012 after 27 years in the Berkeley fire department. She was the city’s first woman firefighter, the first woman chief and the second black woman to head a fire department in the nation. (Doug Oakley/Staff)

BERKELEY, CA — It’s a drizzly cold Tuesday evening and Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is outside the city’s public safety building talking to a homeless man with two shopping carts piled high with possessions.  The man loops in and out of lucidity, but Pryor doesn’t appear annoyed, pressed for time or afraid. She listens and talks to him, then politely wraps it up and approaches a second man to ask if he needs help deciphering the front desk hours of the police station.

Pryor, 51, is retiring Friday after 27 years in the fire department and 27 years of smashing race and gender barriers: she was the city’s first female firefighter, its first female fire chief and the second black female fire chief in the country behind Rosemary Cloud of East Point, Ga. (Earlier this year Oakland named Teresa Deloach Reed as its fire chief, making her the first black woman fire chief of a major metropolitan city.)

Obama To Sign into Law the Child Protection Act of 2012

By goodblacknews on December 7, 2012
President Obama (Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

Today, President Barack Obama will sign H.R. 6063, the Child Protection Act of 2012, in the Oval Office, a bill aimed at protecting victims of child pornography, sexual abuse and trafficking.

By reaching across their respective aisles, Texas legislators have been instrumental is the passage of the soon-to-be-signed new federal law.  During a late night legislative session on Monday, Nov. 26, the United States Senate passed the Child Protection Act of 2012, introduced by Texas Senator John Cornyn and Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. Additionally, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith sponsored the Act’s counterpart – HR 6063 – in the House of Representatives. Smith’s colleagues passed the bill by voice vote in August.  

Tate Modern Gallery Opens the Door to Africa

By goodblacknews on November 4, 2012

Meschac Gaba's Museum of Contemporary African Art

Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art. Photograph: Nils Klinger

Since the building of the great modern art museums in New York, Paris and London, the narrative of 20th-century and contemporary art has been told, by and large, through the stories of the great European and North American cities.  But the Tate has announced it is time to look further afield. “There is not a crisis in British or European art,” said the Tate director, Sir Nicholas Serota, “but we are conscious art is being made across the world and those areas outside Europe and North America cannot be regarded as the periphery.”

artist Otobong Nkanga

Tate will reflect its new international focus through a two-year programme of activities focused on Africa, beginning on 24 November. Events will include performance works in the new Tate Tanks by Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga and Angolan Nástio Mosquito. Next year, Tate Modern will show an extensive work that it has recently acquired by the artist Meschac Gaba, from Benin. Titled Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997-2002, and in 12 sections or “rooms”, it acts as a playful, questioning museum – while highlighting that there is, in fact, no such thing as a museum of contemporary African art.

After 17 Years, Black Candidates Become Firefighters

By goodblacknews on November 3, 2012
Eighty six of the 98 new firefighters who graduated Thursday were bypassed by a discriminatory 1995 entrance exam. Sharon Wright reports.

At age 53, Marvin Jones finally became the fireman he’d always dreamed of becoming.  “It’s been a long struggle. I feel blessed. I’m almost closed to tears,” he said before walking across the stage in Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom to shake hands with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  Jones was among 98 new firefighters who graduated Thursday, 86 of whom were overlooked by city officials who used discriminatory practices in evaluating applicant scores for a 1995 entrance exam.

“It is my hope that we never, ever make those mistakes again,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, stressing that the Chicago Fire Department should be as diverse as the city it serves.

After a series of back-and-forth legal battles over the years, Chicago was ordered in May 2011 to hire 111 black firefighters and pay a total of $30 million to nearly 6,000 clients listed in the class-action lawsuit known as the Lewis case.

Would-be firefighters who chose other career paths and those who chose to bypassed a “jobs lottery” six months later received cash awards of at least $5,000 per person.

Jones never took that payout, opting instead to follow his dream.

“We persevered. We’re here today. We’re graduating. We’re about to be Chicago firefighters,” said Jones, a postal worker for 33 years.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/chicago-fire-department-graduation-176881481.html#ixzz2BGFsOIwY